The corpse of a man who was swallowed up from an unknown source of a hole in the ground, perhaps still wants to get to the surface. This is not a script for a horror movie, but a famous urban legend from the English city of Stoke-on-Trent, in which there may be much more real than it seems at first glance.
On Saturday, December 3, 1903, local resident Thomas Holland was walking to work at 7 a.m. and fell into a hole that had suddenly formed on the pavement right under his feet. The 56-year-old candle-maker fell down with a cry, and was never seen again. More than a century has passed since then, and the body of the unfortunate man is still deep underground.
Rescuers considered that the man fell into an old shaft about 40 meters deep, filled with poisonous gas, and flatly refused to go down. They suggested that Thomas died instantly in the fall, but some witnesses believed that Holland might have survived at first and could still be saved. But instead, workers were called here, who quickly repaired the hole, and city life went on as usual.
Perhaps it was from here that the myth grew that under St. John Street in the north of Stoke-on-Trent there is either a restless spirit, or a real zombie, spawned by Thomas Holland who fell into the ground. Rumor has it that at night here you can hear quiet blows and groans from under the ground, as if someone, trapped below under a layer of asphalt, is trying to escape. And every year on December 3, a strange haze is allegedly seen here in the morning, taking on the vague appearance of a human silhouette.
British historian Fred Lee wrote in his book Legends and Myths of Staffordshire that in 1903, when this tragedy happened, the townspeople wanted to lower a kerosene lamp on a rope into the alleged mine to see if there was any way to help the fallen, but a local miner shouted that in no case should this be done, since accumulations of combustible gas could explode underground. Some of the witnesses even claimed to have shone down and saw Thomas trying to climb up a steep rock. The skin of a wounded person or already dead was pale, and his eyes were completely red with blood.
The death of Mr. Holland then shocked the whole country and did not leave the front pages of newspapers for several days. For the first time in county history, a funeral ceremony took place on a busy road. Despite the rain, many townspeople came to say goodbye to the deceased.
Thomas was a widower - his wife passed away in 1886. The couple have four children left.
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Perhaps the British, who have a special love for ghost stories, simply could not help thinking of some mysticism here. Or maybe - who knows - this mysticism really does take place, and the spirit of Thomas Holland, engulfed in a mysterious hole, is still trying to escape …
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